1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for creating, modifying, and manipulating charts and diagrams using computers. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and methods for manipulating and modifying the display of charts and diagrams. The present invention also relates to systems and methods for modifying the display of charts and diagrams.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of personal computers has become widespread for a variety of functions and applications in business and education. One such application of computers is their use for producing, printing, and displaying graphical images. Still more particularly, a variety of application programs have been developed for creating flowcharts, organizational charts, and various other diagrams. Such existing systems provide for the creation of various drawing elements and their interconnection. For example, there are a variety of very complex computer aided design or drafting programs for creating any type of mechanical, electrical, and architectural drawings. There are also more simplistic drawing programs for creating only flowcharts or only organizational charts. Many of these programs include settings for how each element of a flowchart or diagram is displayed. A setting is a pre-defined set of characteristics for the element of the flowchart or diagram. The setting defines how the element will be displayed. The settings include text, the shape of elements, the thickness of lines, and other characteristics. The settings are on an elemental level; they do not apply to the drawing as a whole.
One major problem with the existing flowcharting and drawing programs is that they are very difficult to use. The complex computer aided design programs usually require a significant amount of training to be used and are typically only used by skilled draftspersons. Even the more simplistic drawing programs with reduced functionality are cumbersome and difficult to use. For example, existing systems require a number of key strokes or inputs from a mouse type controller to change a setting used in a diagram. A means to modify the setting must first be activated. The element is then selected and a new setting indicated. The system then must change the setting and display the element in the new setting form. To change more than one characteristic of an element, each setting of the element must be individually changed. It is a cumbersome and time consuming process to change a setting of each element of an entire flowchart or diagram. Thus, there is a need for a system to change the characteristics of elements of a drawing on a drawing level so that characteristics of all elements may be changed quickly, efficiently, and consistently.
A number of drawing programs allow all elements of a flowchart or diagram to be selected and modified simultaneously. These systems, however, change the characteristics of each element in the same way; they do not allow for different treatment for the corresponding characteristics of different elements. For example, such a system can change the font of the text within all the elements of a flowchart. Such a system cannot, however, change the font of the text within diamond elements to a first font and the font of the text within rectangle elements to a second font. These systems can be used to select all similar elements, such as diamond elements, to modify the selected elements, and then to repeat the process for other groups of similar elements. As can be seen, this approach is repetitious and time consuming.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and methods providing for the simple and efficient application of visual characteristics to flowcharts and diagrams.